The novels of Charles Brockden Brown, consisting of Wieland;or, The transformation. Arthur Mervyn; or, Memoirs of the year 1793. Edgar Huntly; or, Memoirs of a sleep-walker. Jane Talbot. Ormond; or, The secret witness. Clara Howard; or, The enthusiasm of love. With a memoir of the author.

THE ENTHUSIASM OF LOVE.

113

They supply the place of a thousand conversations; they
leave nothing to be said; they take away every remnant
of hesitation; they inspire me with new virtue and new
joy. I am not grieved that Stanley and his Clara are
subjected to trials of their magnanimity, since I foresee
the propitious issue of the trial. I am not grieved that
the happiness of Mary has been an object of such value
in your eyes as to merit the sacrifice of your own. I
exult that my feelings are akin to yours, and that it is
in my power to vie with you in generosity.
But Stanley's last letter gives me pain; the more,
because in the tenor of yours which preceded it there is
an apparent harshness, not, perhaps, to be mistaken by
an unimpassioned reader, but liable to produce fallacious
terrors in a heart deeply enamoured. I see the extent
of this error in him, but am consoled by hoping that my
reasoning, when we meet, or, at least, that time, will
dispel this unfriendly'cloud. I am impatient for his
coming. MARY WILMOT.
LETTER XXVIII.
To Miss Howard.
Philadelphia, May 13.
MY friend, we have met; but such a meeting!
The letters had told me of his sickness, but I expected
not to behold a figure so wan, so feeble, so decayed. I
expected much anxiety, much conflict in his features between apprehension and hope; but not an aspect so wild,
so rueful, so melancholy. His deportment and his words
were equally adverse to my expectations.
After our first tears of congratulation were exhausted,
he exclaimed, in a tone of unusual vehemence, " Why,
my friend, have you thus long abandoned me. You
have been unjust to yourself and to me; and I know not
how to pardon you, except on one condition."
"What is that?"
"That we now meet to be united by the strongest ties,
and never to part more. On that condition I forgive
you."